Michael Douglas & HPV: Celebs with near-fatal attractions

Kat Hobza resides in sunny Western Montana. She is the Senior Authoress Specializing in Sarcasm at www.funnyfreelance.com. Okay, she’s the only authoress at funny freelance. When she’s not formulating tongue-in-cheek ideas and content as...

Not-so-safe sex

The CDC estimates that half of all sexually active men and women have been infected with HPV (human papillomavirus). When Michael Douglas told The Guardian that his throat cancer can be caused by HPV, he reminded us that the CDC’s statistic applies to celebs too. Does half of Hollywood have HPV? Here are a few celebs who have admitted to having STDs.

Michael Douglas

So Michael Douglas didn’t really admit to having HPV. Or did he? In The Guardian interview he was asked if he regretted smoking and drinking, since in the past that's what Douglas blamed his throat cancer on. Douglas answered, "No. Because without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus." Uh, OK. Douglas is now backpedaling something fierce (likely because either current wife Catherine Zeta-Jones or ex-wife Diandra Douglas FAH-reaked out). His rep issued a statement to USA Today stating, "Michael Douglas did not say cunnilingus was the cause of his cancer. It was discussed that oral sex is a suspected cause of certain oral cancers as doctors in the article point out, but he did not say it was the specific cause of his personal cancer." Riiiiigggghhhhht.

Image credit Will Alexander/WENN

Brandi Glanville

In her tell-all memoir, Drinking & Tweeting: And Other Brandi Blunders, Brandi Glanville accused now ex-husband Eddie Cibrian of giving her HPV. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star and mistress of tacky behavior also revealed that she had vaginal rejuvenation after Cibrian cheated on her with her now arch-Twitter enemy LeAnn Rimes. Glanville has since revealed she no longer has HPV.

Image credit Ryan/WENN

Pam Anderson

Arguably the sexiest woman alive, Anderson contracted hepatitis C from ex-husband Tommy Lee, though Pam maintains not through sexual contact. She told Jane magazine, "When Tommy did his blood work, the doctor told him, 'You have hepatitis C, and you really need to tell Pamela.' But he never told me." That became problematic when the two shared the same tattoo needle. And the moral of the story, boys and girls? Don’t share tattoo needles — or marry Tommy Lee.

Image credit WENN

Alexa Ray Joel

The daughter of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley told xojane.com that she contracted HPV from an ex-boyfriend. Like Glanville, Alexa said she "got it taken care of." In that same interview, Alexa said she harbored no ill will toward the boyfriend who gave it to her. "I wasn't angry with him, because it's so common and he wasn't cheating on me. I mean I was living with him; I saw him every day." Yeah. Because none of us have been cheated on by someone we lived with every day, ha ha. We’re sure Alexa is right, and pinpointing the source of HPV is incredibly difficult because it can stay dormant in our systems, it’s often asymptomatic, most of us never know we have it and our body will often cure itself of HPV.